Death toll rises to 29 in Ukraine aid site strike

Residents in southern Ukraine face a grim reality as the death toll from a Russian attack on a humanitarian aid site climbed to 29 on Tuesday. The strike hit a shelter in Komyushuvakha, a village in the Zaporizhzhia region, leaving 48 people missing under the rubble. Dozens of rescuers and volunteers are still searching the cratered blast site, pulling out bodies wrapped in white plastic sheeting.

The attack used bunker-busting bombs containing nearly 1.5 tons of explosives. Mykhailo Semikin, acting head of the region's military administration, called the scale of the tragedy terrifying. He noted it is one of the worst incidents for civilian victims in the region since the full-scale war began. The dead include four police officers and two rescue workers. At least five others were injured.

The strike occurred as part of a massive overnight barrage that targeted power plants across the country. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia launched 289 attack drones, 17 ballistic missiles, and 59 cruise missiles across nine regions. The attacks triggered emergency power cuts. Zelenskyy stated the barrage coincided with U.S. elections and that Russia thinks America will not notice the signal. He urged for help defending Ukraine's skies to stop the missile strikes.

Three days of mourning were declared in Zaporizhzhia. In the Kharkiv region to the northeast, a combined missile and drone attack wounded at least 62 people. Local authorities reported that a strike damaged a medical facility in the Nemyshlianskyi district. Windows in four apartment buildings shattered, and cars were damaged. Oleh Syniehubov, head of the regional military administration, said more than 200 patients were transferred to other facilities.

In the Dnipro area, rescuers pulled a woman alive from the rubble on Tuesday morning. A Russian attack in that area killed one person and wounded 17. Oleksandr Hanzha, head of the regional military administration, confirmed that an outpatient clinic and a hospital were damaged. Patients were moved to other hospitals. Rolling blackouts were instituted in the south, west, and east of Russian-occupied Crimea following attacks on energy infrastructure.

Russia's Ministry of Defense said it shot down 856 Ukrainian drones overnight. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported that 493 drones were fired toward the capital. A Ukrainian drone attack also wounded two employees at an oil refinery in Yaroslavl. Regional Governor Mikhail Yevrayev said there was damage to the refinery's infrastructure.